So let’s see if I’ve got this right: In your cheat sheet for the August primary election, you said a candidate (Shoreline City Councilman Jesse Salomon) “****-ing sucks” (..) “We can’t even pretend he was any good.”– but you endorsed him anyway?

Over a candidate (State Senator Maralyn Chase) who has a longstanding history of strong progressive principles, votes and positions that you yourselves have historically supported?

You feebly endorsed a city councilmember (Salomon) for state senate because he said he hypothetically would have voted for a health care bill if he were in state office, and you vilified the sitting senator (Chase) who actually co-sponsored the bill in question—and incorrectly accuse her of not supporting the bill?

And you, who pride yourselves on being rude and obnoxious, cry foul when a candidate calls you “rude”?

What gives?

The August primary ended in basically a tie between Chase and Salomon, with less than 200 votes between them, Salomon finishing ahead. There’s clearly a battle afoot. And now, with your general election endorsements this week, you have continued your erratic attacks on Chase and your illogical support of her opponent, leaving many of us wondering: Whose side are you on?

The Stranger has been an edgy alternative voice in this (Boeing/Microsoft/Gates/ Starbucks/Vulcan/Amazon) company town for many years. I genuinely appreciate that. In the past, you have taken brave stances and covered important stories with some damn good writers (though you’ve also lost some along the way). You endorsed Kshama Sawant in 2013 (and me that same year — thank you for that). But lately, when it comes to endorsements, too often you’ve gotten it wrong. Obnoxiously, dangerously wrong.

Your treatment of Maralyn Chase is a case in point.

There was something rabidly irrational about your attack on Senator Chase in the primary election, especially considering you endorsed her in the past. Your backhanded endorsement of her opponent is equally senseless.

The truth is, Chase has been actively championing progressive causes and policies throughout her many years of public service, collaborating with colleagues as well as leading (by introducing a health care initiative inspired by the one in California, for example), or yes, taking a principled stand against a large transportation tax that had a lot of questions surrounding it. She has consistently been a staunch supporter of progressive issues like: affordable health care, public education, workers’ rights, fair taxes, LGBTQ rights, social justice, protecting the environment, affordable housing, economic equality, job creation, fair wages. She led the effort to mandate GMO labeling and was not afraid to take on Monsanto’s millions.

These are all issues The Stranger has championed as well. Or used to. Has something changed?

Let’s start with your primary endorsement claim about Chase’s record on single-payer health care. You incorrectly accused Chase of not supporting a bill. You wrote: “Instead of joining on with Senator David Frockt’s better single-payer bill, Chase copied California’s failed version of the bill and then went straight to the Seattle Times with the news that she wanted to bring single-payer to Washington State.”

Incidentally, healthcare activists in California are working on getting “Healthy California” signed into law by the next Democratic governor (if elected), followed by Oregon as “Healthy Oregon,” and here as “Healthy Washington,” creating a tri-state system. So Senator Chase may have exactly the foresight we want in our elected officials.

Also, you accused Chase of not single-handedly forcing through bills, when your own reporter noted that even a bill with a coalition of solid support can be stymied or killed by just one vote. Wrote Smith: “None of the single-payer bills made it out of committee in the last legislative session in Olympia. (Sen. David Frockt’s bill came close, but no cigar thanks in part to Sen. Mark Mullet, the only Democrat on the Senate healthcare committee who didn’t vote YES.) This is bad news.”

Policymaking and governing are rarely a solo act. Yet The Stranger accused Chase of both not doing enough single-handedly and not doing enough in collaboration with others. Which is it?

Public Education

Chase has also been a tireless supporter of public education and has worked to protect WA schools from damaging and failed corporate ed reforms. This led some in your comments section to wonder why Saul Spady was newly listed on your primary election endorsements Editorial Board at the same time you took aim at a champion of public ed. In 2004 and since, the Spady family were big backers of a charter schools push by then-Governor Locke (despite voters having rejected charter schools statewide twice), which Chase helped to stave off. And Saul Spady recently headed the effort to repeal the City Council’s short-lived head tax on larger businesses (like Amazon). Was it merely a coincidence that The Stranger suddenly turned on one of the most progressive pro-public ed legislators in the state at the same time it invited a member of a pro-ed-privatizing family onto its Ed Board?

Public disclosure is a topic where nearly all the state legislators got it wrong this year – including Cindy Ryu, Eric Pettigrew and Frank Chopp. Yet The Stranger endorsed all three of them anyway, and only singled out Chase, who cast the same vote they did. How does The Stranger justify that inconsistency?

And I agree with you that their attempt to modify or clarify the law – an option offered to them by the judge and the state attorney general — did not go far enough to establish true transparency. A taskforce won’t suffice either, and Chase realizes that.

But Chase, who serves on the Sunshine Committee, does have some valid concerns about the abuse of the PRA that can reveal private information of private citizens, and the costs. I have seen the law abused, and private citizens’ emails used politically and without full context, as I outlined in my earlier post from March 2018.

Also, collecting, reviewing and redacting emails carefully takes time and money. At the Seattle School District we had two staffers working full time doing nothing but that. Confidential info still slipped through. State legislators need to find resources for this significant task, and they need to protect the privacy of their constituents. Both must be done.

What I learned from serving in public office for four years (on the school board) and what we see in vivid display on the national stage, is when all is said and done, in order to elect a good legislator, your best bet is to elect a person of good character with a sound moral compass; someone who will side with the powerless and disadvantaged, and stand up to power and corruption; who will take on injustice. That is Chase’s history.

Now more than ever it is clear that character and values matter. We need people with sound ethics and good judgment in office at all levels of government.

Elsewhere in your primary (and general election) endorsements you gave Representative Suzanne DelBene credit for a “symbolic” but failed effort (“While DelBene’s bill was more symbolic than serious (and died in committee), the SECB appreciates deft political symbolism every once in a while.”), yet you don’t grant Chase the same grace. Why not?

Chase is willing to take brave positions that challenge the greater powers that be and isn’t afraid to be a lone voice sometimes. That’s why she has earned the respect and endorsement of fellow progressives like Larry Gossett, Pramila Jayapal, Bob Ferguson, Bob Hasegawa, David Frockt, Gerry Pollet, the King County Democrats, the Washington State Labor Council and the State teacher’s union (WEA). She has also earned a place in FUSE’s Progressive Voters Guide.

$32,250 in polling in the 32nd and 34th legislative districts, reported on 10/15/18. (See PDC records here.) Note, these “services” are listed as “in kind” donations to the WA Realtors PAC. In other words, Stand is apparently laundering its contributions to candidates like Salomon (in the 32nd LD) and Shannon Braddock (in the 34th LD) through the Washington Realtors Association Political Action Committee.

Salomon meanwhile has wiped his PDC record of the $1,000 direct contribution he received from Stand, and has not included their endorsement on his web site, even though he must have actively applied for it in order to receive it.

Unfortunately, your endorsement of Salomon over Chase is just one of the latest Stranger misfires.

You had nothing good to say about Chopp or Pettigrew yet you still endorsed them both. Neither has the progressive credentials of Chase. In fact, as recently as this week in your perennial endorsement of State Rep. Pettigrew you say:

“Eric Pettigrew is a trash legislator who told the SECB in 2014, when he was in his 12th year in office, ‘I don’t know if I have passed any bills this term.’ It’s not clear he has done anything since then, now that he is in his 16th year. He has voted against raising the minimum wage, tried to loosen regulations for predatory payday lenders, voted to shield the state legislature from disclosing public records, and promoted charter schools.”

Why doesn’t The Stranger simply issue no endorsement in races like those? The “lesser of two evils” argument is what leads to decades of mediocre and compromised candidates staying in power.

And now you trash one of the most consistent progressive voices in the state legislature, and support someone backed by privatizers whom you don’t really respect.

The most serious upshot of your flippant endorsements for candidates you don’t really believe in, or who are less qualified, is that truly lesser candidates are making it into the general election, while better ones you could have supported are being left behind.

As a fellow journalist it pains me to see a once decent publication render itself unreliable, sometimes unreadable (the expletives are getting a bit tired, by the way) especially in a one-paper town. I know I’m not the only one to wonder if The Stranger has lost its way.

Chase is the clear choice for reelection in District 32 because she is a tenacious person of conscience who will continue to fight for social justice, the underdog, and isn’t afraid to stand up to bigger forces—or The Stranger Ed Control Board, for that matter. She has been a strong and consistent progressive voice and a people’s representative, not a pawn of developers, corporations or privatizers.

She deserves better from The Stranger. And your readers need better information from you.

BETTY PATU is the only candidate with over 30 years of extensive experience with Seattle Public Schools. She has firsthand knowledge of the district’s communities, challenges, successes and goals.

BETTY knows the job. With 8 years of experience overseeing the district’s $1 billion budget through good times and lean, she brings valuable knowledge and continuity to the Board.

BETTY is focused on equity and results. She voted for the District’s groundbreaking Racial Equity Policy, supported a moratorium on K-5 nonviolent suspensions, helped to align school start times to better meet student needs, and has brought programs like International Baccalaureate to Rainier Beach High School and Science Technology Engineering and Math (STEM) to Cleveland High School.

BETTY has deep roots in the communities she represents. A native of American Samoa, she has lived and served in Southeast Seattle for decades.

BETTY has skin in the game. All five of her kids graduated from Seattle Public Schools and she now has grandchildren following in their footsteps.

BETTY has a proven commitment to student success. As a founder of intervention programs that helped hundreds of at-risk students, her work was featured in the New York Times, and earned the United Nations’ Humanitarian Award, Patty Senator Murray’s “Golden Tennis Award,” and many other honors for her valuable community service.

BETTY is a proven civic leader. She has served as Seattle School Board President, Vice President, Chair of the Executive and Operations Committees, and the District’s City Liaison.

BETTY is highly qualified. She has a Master’s degree in education administration, a degree in nursing, and experience working as a teacher.

BETTY is endorsed by a broad coalition that includes: The Stranger, the Seattle Weekly, The Medium, Democratic and labor organizations, including the 32nd, 34th, 37th, 43rd and 46th District Democrats, the King County and the Metropolitan Democrats, Local 609; State Senators Maralyn Chase and Bob Hasegawa, State Representative and House Education Committee Chair Sharon Tomiko Santos, King County Councilmember Larry Gossett, Head of the City’s Dept. of Early Learning, Dwane Chappelle, five of her six colleagues on the School Board, education leaders including Estela Ortega (El Centro de la Raza), Rita Green (NAACP), Sebrena Burr (Seattle Council PTSA), parents, teachers and students district-wide.

BETTY is committed to public education. Unlike her opponent, she does not support diverting resources to charter schools.

VOTE FOR BETTY!

What colleagues, parents, former students & media say about Betty Patu

“As an African American Male who attended Rainier Beach High School in the 90’s, Betty Patu has always helped not only my African American peers but all kids who needed help with resources and opportunities. She didn’t see color, she saw students as a mother tending to her children. She dedicated her life to ensuring we graduated from high school on time and I am proud to let everyone know what she did for me. I am forever grateful and love this woman! She will represent your voice on the Board in a spirit of excellence!” – Jamal Crawford, NBA Sixth Man of the Year (3x)Minnesota Timberwolves

“Betty Patu is a goddamned legend. As a South Seattle high-school teacher and tireless advocate for minority students, Patu waltzed into local gang meetings to get her students to go back to class and once even barked down a student who held another peer at gunpoint. NBD! Her work directly lowered high-school dropout rates in the community. Despite spending nearly a decade on the school board—seen by many education advocates as the soul-sucking home of single-issue candidates—Patu hasn’t wavered in her commitment to equity.” – The Stranger

“Betty Patu has been one of the most determined and effective leaders in Seattle when it comes to working for every child in our schools and dismantling the structural, pervasive racism in this district.” – Sebrena Burr, parent, activist and President, Seattle Council PTSA

“Weare fortunate as a district to have someone of Betty’s integrity and experience as a public servant. What is especially remarkable about Betty is that her experience is real. She has helped get kids off the streets, encouraged them to stay in school. I am convinced she has saved lives. Even now, former students come to her and tell her their lives took a different path because of her. She is a woman of courage and conviction, an honest voice that speaks from the heart but with a solid sense of common sense. She has the strength of character to be humble, but is also fierce in her dedication to meet the needs of all the children of Seattle’s public schools.” – Sue Peters, parent, activist and President, Seattle School Board

Dispatches from media around town…

Election Night: The Empire Strikes Back!

It is a dark time for rebellious liberals. Although they won the mayor’s office and school board in elections past, wealthy forces seek to drive the interlopers from City Hall. Mayor Mike McGinn, Council Member O’Brien, and brave school board hopeful Sue Peters are running formidable campaigns to maintain their progressive foothold. But state senator Ed Murray, the rabidly conservative police guild, and grazzilionaire Nick Hanauer—obsessed with the politics of division and a scourge of crime—have deployed wealthy PACs to stop the insurgency and reclaim the government.

But the fact is, many people, both inside and outside my campaign, locally and nationally, have asked this legitimate question: If Suzanne Dale Estey opposes charter schools, as she claims, why have all the major proponents of charter schools, the wealthy individuals who also bankrolled last year’s state charter schools Initiative 1240 (which 60 percent of Seattle voters rejected), and other corporate ed reform agenda items, invested a record amount of money into her campaign, and into the political action committee (“Great Seattle Schools”) they created on her behalf? (For an unprecedented total of $240,000+) And why did they attack my candidacy repeatedly, if she and I are both opposed to their main agenda item?

What are we to believe?

Often, all we have is a candidate’s word on an issue. But what if someone’s words don’t add up? During the course of the last six months, on the campaign trail, both of us have had many opportunities to speak the truth on issues.

So at a forum in September, when we were asked by an audience member to identify our top five donors, many were surprised when my opponent claimed not to know who her top contributors were. Yet, Dale Estey’s top donors include the CEO of one of the biggest corporations in the world, Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer and his wife Connie, the CEO of one the largest foundations in the world, the Gates Foundation’s Jeff Raikes, real estate developer Matt Griffin, and former Microsoft executive Christopher Larson (and now venture capitalist Nick Hanauer) who currently have contributed a combined total of $83,000+ to Dale Estey’s PAC and campaign.

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE 37th District Democrats endorsement meeting, Sept. 9, 2013 (resulted in sole endorsement for Sue Peters)
Q: from the audience: Will you please tell us who your the top five contributors are?
SDE: You know, honestly, perhaps I should know that, but I don’t. I’ve received over 400 contributions, many, in fact the last time I checked and run the numbers, I haven’t run them recently, I have more contributors below $50 than my opponent has in her entire…. A senior citizen handed me $7 in cash the other day. I value each and every contribution. But no, I can’t name my top contributors. I could probably take a guess. My parents signed up right away. I have quite a few people who are absolutely fed up with the status quo of the school district and I’m very proud to have all of their support.
Sue P: Well mine is very much a community based campaign and I’m funded by a wide range of people and so my top contributors are teachers and parents and families who support me.I can help my opponent out a little bit. Here are your top contributors: Steve and Connie Ballmer, I think they both contributed the max; Jeff Raikes, from the Gates Foundation and his wife. And then Matt Griffin and Christopher Larson, as you know, created a political action committee whose goal is to elect you and Stephan. They’ve already spent $32,000 in the primary to help you, and during that time they went negative against me and spent $16,000 on two negative mailers against me. So these are the contributors to my opponent’s campaign.
I am very proud of my campaign. We are grassroots, community based one. I represent the people. I believe in representing all the community. I believe the school board should be a democratically elected body representing all the people, elected by the people, not by the people with the most money.

In the last month of the campaign, my opponent started to claim in public forums that she “ran Governor Gary Locke’s D.C .office.” But there is no mention of this significant role on her resume. I checked, and was unable to find any record of Suzanne Dale Estey being on Governor Locke’s payroll.

Education blogger and activist Melissa Westbrook researched this and other related issues and discovered that Dale Estey worked in Governor Locke’s office for just three months, as a paid summer intern from June-August 1998. Nowhere on Estey’s resume or in those public forums does she mention the word “internship” or mention the brevity of her experience there. Instead, she has said:

“(…) I’ve got significant public affairs experience in working in education policy at every level of government, from the Clinton White House, when I ran the conference on mayors on public schools, Governor Gary Locke, where I ran his D.C. office, and I’ve worked on education and human services issues for both the City of Seattle and King County Executive Ron Sims….” – Suzanne Dale Estey, Eastlake Community Council forum, Oct. 15, 2013

And then The Stranger has reported that, in 2004, while serving as a lobbyist for Washington Mutual, Dale Estey sent an email to 9,000 employees urging them to vote against the Monorail, while at the same time, serving as a member of the Transportation Choices Coalition, a pro-Monorail organization. Did she support or oppose the Monorail? Both? Who knows.

Why does all of this matter?

Because one of us is going to be elected to the Seattle School Board. And I believe that honesty, integrity and the truth matter.

As a professionally trained journalist, I am committed to facts and the truth. I will bring such scrutiny to my role as your school board director. I will aim to oversee and safeguard our resources and help steer our district in a positive direction that corresponds to the needs and realities of our communities, and to the facts.

I have a proven history of researching and standing up for issues, and being on the right side of them. In 2009, I spoke up against the school closures. Eight months later, the district had to reopen schools at a cost of $48 million. In 2010, I advocated against the weak Discovering Math textbooks. The court agreed and declared the district’s decision to adopt these books “arbitrary and capricious.” In 2010, I analyzed the MAP test in a blog post called “15 Reasons Why the Seattle School District Should Shelve the MAP Test–ASAP.” In 2013, Garfield High School teachers spoke up about the flaws of the MAP, informed by my article. Their courageous action made national news and led to the discontinuation of MAP at the high school level.

Even the so-called “conspiracy theory” that Dale Estey’s PAC accused me of in a clumsy (but expensive) smear attempt last week, merely highlighted my focus on facts and commitment to understanding the bigger picture of education policy, reform and funding.

Sue Peters is the only candidate with nearly 10 years of extensive experience with Seattle Public Schools (SPS), and has firsthand knowledge of the district’s communities, challenges, successes and goals.

Sue is the only candidate with current experience in elementary, middle, and high school, in SPS.

She is a proven local and national leader in education advocacy, as a founding member of Parents Across America, the Seattle Math Coalition, and the Seattle Education blog.

Sue is the only candidate who has served on two Seattle School District task forces: the Superintendent Search Community Focus Group (2012), and the Strategic Plan Stakeholder Task Force (2013).

Sue has analyzed and written about public education policy and practices for the past 5 years, as a journalist with a Master’s degree from Stanford.

As a parent advocate, Sue has spoken up about important issues like school closures, the need for strong curricula, student safety and privacy, the problems with the MAP test, and has spoken alongside education historian Dr. Diane Ravitch about the importance of including the voice of parents in public education.

Sue supports an education system that embraces & celebrates the individuality and diversity of our children.

Sue supports a greater investment in teaching and learning, and less testing.

Sue is endorsed by a broad progressive coalition that includes: The Stranger, Democratic and labor organizations, such as the 11th, 32nd, 34th, 36th, 37th, and 43rdDistrict Democrats, the King County and the Metropolitan Democrats, the National Women’s Political Caucus of Washington, M. L. King Jr. County Labor Council, International Union of Operating Engineers, Local 609, The Teamsters Joint Council No. 28; State Senators Maralyn Chase & Bob Hasegawa, State Representatives Gerry Pollet & Joe Fitzgibbon, King County Councilmember Larry Gossett, four of her seven future colleagues on the school board, education leaders like Cliff Mass, parents & teachers district-wide.

Sue has a longtime proven commitment to keeping public education public, and she will represent YOU!

VOTE FOR SUE!

What colleagues, neighbors, parents & teachers say about Sue Peters

“Having worked across the table with Sue in the district Strategic Planning Task Force work these past months, I want to support her offer to run for the school board. She’s got the right sort of insight and savvy to represent parents and students in addressing the decisions faced by our Seattle Public Schools.” – Craig Seasholes, Librarian, Sanislo Elementary School, and 2013 Strategic Plan Stakeholder Task Force Member“When election time comes this fall, vote for Seattle School Board candidates that support good math. Sue Peters, is a strong advocate of strong math textbooks for our city’s kids. I know she would make an excellent school board member.” – Cliff Mass, UW Professor of Atmospheric Sciences, KPLU weather commentator, and math advocate“I look forward to Sue applying her considerable intellect, integrity, thoughtfulness, and compassion to the Seattle School Board. I can’t think, in all sincerity, of another person I would rather have representing the interests of Seattle’s students in that capacity. Go, Sue!” – Tim Richards, parent